William McIntosh (1775 – April 30, 1825),Hoxie, Frederick (1996)
pp. 367-369
/ref> was also commonly known as ''Tustunnuggee Hutke'' (White Warrior), was one of the most prominent chiefs of the

Creek Nation The Muscogee Nation, or Muscogee (Creek) Nation, is a federally recognized Native American tribe based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The nation descends from the historic Muscogee Confederacy, a large group of indigenous peoples of the South ...

between the turn of the nineteenth century and his execution in 1825. He was a chief of

Coweta Coweta is a city in Wagoner County, Oklahoma, United States, a suburb of Tulsa. As of 2010, its population was 9,943. Part of the Creek Nation in Indian Territory before Oklahoma became a U.S. state, the town was first settled in 1840.matrilineal Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's Lineage (anthropology), lineage – and which can in ...

system, and to other aspects of Creek culture. Because McIntosh led a group that negotiated and signed the Treaty of Indian Springs in February 1825, which ceded much of remaining Creek lands to the United States in violation of Creek law, for the first time the

Creek National Council A creek in North America and elsewhere, such as Australia, is a stream that is usually smaller than a river. In the British Isles it is a small tidal inlet. Creek may also refer to: People * Creek people, also known as Muscogee, Native Americans ...

ordered that a Creek be executed for crimes against the Nation. It sentenced him and other signatories to death. McIntosh was executed by his long-time political nemesis

Menawa Menawa, first called ''Hothlepoya'' (c. 1765 – c. 1836-40), was a Muscogee (Creek) chief and military leader. He was of mixed race, with a Creek mother and a fur trader father of mostly Scots ancestry. As the Creek had a matrilineal syst ...

and a large force of

Law Menders Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

in late April 1825. Two other signatories were executed and another, while McIntosh's son Chilly was shot at, but escaped unharmed. Menawa signed a treaty in 1826 that was very similar in both language and benefits, but one which the Creek National Council had agreed to and was therefore considered a legitimate treaty according to contemporary Creek law. The vast majority of Chief McIntosh's descendants voluntarily moved to

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United St ...

in modern-day Oklahoma prior to forced federal government removals via the Trail of Tears, which began in 1831. Two of Chief McIntosh's sons, Chilly & Daniel, served as

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

officers during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Daughter Kate & her family became pre-statehood pioneers of the Florida Panhandle. Daughters Rebecca and Delilah moved to East Texas with their husbands, developing plantations there. Rebecca McIntosh Hawkins Hagerty married again after her first husband died young, and by 1860 was the wealthiest woman in Texas, owning three plantations with a total of 12,800 acres and 120 slaves."A Guide to the Rebecca McIntosh Hawkins Hagerty Papers: Biographical Note"
Rebecca McIntosh Hawkins Hagerty Papers, (1823–1901), 1974, 1991, Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin

Early life and education

''Tustunnuggee Hutke'' (or "White Warrior") was born in the Lower Creek Town of Coweta in present-day Georgia to ''Senoya'' (also spelled ''Senoia'' and ''Senoy''), a member of the Wind Clan, which was prominent in the Creek Nation. As the Creek had a

matrilineal Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's Lineage (anthropology), lineage – and which can in ...

kinship system, through which property and hereditary positions were passed, his mother's status determined that of White Warrior. The boy was also named after his father, the Scottish-American soldier William McIntosh, who was connected to a prominent

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...

family. Captain McIntosh, a

Loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cro ...

during the Revolutionary War, had worked with the Creek to recruit them as military allies to the British. The senior McIntosh's mother was Margaret "Mary" McGillivray, believed to have been a sister of the Scot

Lachlan McGillivray Lachlan McGillivray (–1799) was a prosperous fur trader and planter in colonial Georgia with interests that extended from Savannah to what is now central Alabama. He was the father of Alexander McGillivray and the great-uncle of William McIntos ...

, a wealthy fur trader and planter in Georgia. After the Revolutionary War, Captain McIntosh moved from the frontier to

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to rea ...

to settle. There he married a paternal cousin, Barbara McIntosh. White Warrior gained his status and place among the Creek from his mother's clan.

Benjamin Hawkins Benjamin Hawkins (August 15, 1754June 6, 1816) was an American planter, statesman and a U.S. Indian agent He was a delegate to the Continental Congress and a United States Senator from North Carolina, having grown up among the planter elite ...

, first appointed as United States

Indian agent In United States history, an Indian agent was an individual authorized to interact with American Indian tribes on behalf of the government. Background The federal regulation of Indian affairs in the United States first included development of t ...

in the Southeast and then as Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the territory south of the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

, lived among the Creeks and

Choctaws The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...

, and knew them well. He commented in letters to President

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

that Creek women were matriarchs and had control of children "when connected with a white man."Griffith (1998), ''McIntosh and Weatherford'', pp. 10–11 Hawkins further observed that even wealthy traders were nearly as "inattentive" to their

mixed-race Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...

children as "the Indians". What he did not understand about the Creek culture was that the children had a closer relationship with their mother's eldest brother than with their biological father, because of the importance of the clan structure. McIntosh was considered a skilled orator and politician. He became a wealthy planter and

slaveholder The following is a list of slave owners, for which there is a consensus of historical evidence of slave ownership, in alphabetical order by last name. A * Adelicia Acklen (1817–1887), at one time the wealthiest woman in Tennessee, she inh ...

; and he was influential in both Creek and European-American society. One of his cousins was

George Troup George McIntosh Troup (September 8, 1780 – April 26, 1856) was an American politician from the U.S. state of Georgia. He served in the Georgia General Assembly, U.S. House of Representatives, and U.S. Senate before becoming the 32nd Govern ...

, who became governor of Georgia when McIntosh was a prominent chief. Whites sometimes mistakenly assumed that McIntosh had centralized authority over the Creeks, but he was only one among numerous chiefs, and the central power became the Creek National Council, especially after it adopted the

Code of 1818 In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...

. For generations, Creek chiefs had approved their daughters' marriages to fur traders in order to strengthen their alliances and trading power with the wealthy Europeans. Through both his mother and father, McIntosh was related to numerous other influential Creek chiefs, most of whom were ''

métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...

'', of Creek mothers and white fathers, who were valued as husbands. The most prominent were

Alexander McGillivray Alexander McGillivray, also known as ''Hoboi-Hili-Miko'' (December 15, 1750February 17, 1793), was a Muscogee (Creek) leader. The son of a Muscogee mother and a Scottish father, he had skills no other Creek of his day had: he was not only liter ...

(1750–1793), the son of

Sehoy Sehoy, or Sehoy I (died ca. 1730), was an 18th-century matriarch of the Muscogee Confederacy and a member of the Wind clan. She established a dynasty that became influential in the political and economic history of her nation and its relationsh ...

, a Wind Clan mother, and

; and

William Weatherford William Weatherford, also known after his death as Red Eagle (ca. 1765 – March 24, 1824), was a Creek chief of the Upper Creek towns who led many of the Red Sticks actions in the Creek War (1813–1814) against Lower Creek towns and against ...

(c.1780–1824), also born to the Wind Clan. Both McIntosh and Weatherford became well established as Creek chiefs and wealthy planters, but Weatherford was aligned with the traditionalist Red Sticks of the Upper Towns in the period of the Creek Wars. The Red Sticks were allied with the British and so he and McIntosh, who was with the Lower Towns and allied with the Americans, were opposed to each other during the conflict.

Marriages and children

Chief McIntosh's first wife was Eliza Hawkins, although she has often erroneously been claimed to be

Elizabeth Grierson Elizabeth Grierson (ca. 1790 – 1847) was an 18th-century Muscogee woman from the Hillabee town in the Muscogee Nation, now present-day Alabama. She was a businesswoman, who used the court system to her advantage. As the Muscogee relationship w ...

. Married around McIntosh's twenty-fifth birthday, he and Eliza's marriage produced five children: Chillicothe " Chilly", Jane, Kate, Sallie, and Louis. Their first-born was a son, named Chilly McIntosh (1800–1895), born near Georgia, in

Coweta Coweta is a city in Wagoner County, Oklahoma, United States, a suburb of Tulsa. As of 2010, its population was 9,943. Part of the Creek Nation in Indian Territory before Oklahoma became a U.S. state, the town was first settled in 1840. Their daughter Jane married Samuel Hawkins, Kate married William Cousins, and their daughter Sallie's husband was George McLish. Around the end of the Creek War, McIntosh took a second wife, Susannah Ree (also shown as Roe/Rowe, or Coe), whose heritage is variously given as Cherokee, and full-blooded Muscogee. McIntosh and Susannah had four children:

Rebecca Rebecca, ; Syriac: , ) from the Hebrew (lit., 'connection'), from Semitic root , 'to tie, couple or join', 'to secure', or 'to snare') () appears in the Hebrew Bible as the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. According to biblical ...

, Catherine Hettie, Delilah, and

Daniel Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength" ...

, known as D.N. As a highly successful soldier and businessman, McIntosh's elevated social/tribal status allowed him to take a third wife, a woman named Peggy. Records conflict as to whether Peggy and McIntosh had three additional children or no children. Following his death in April 1825, Chief McIntosh's widow Eliza, younger half-brother Roley, and all but one of the chief's children would voluntarily relocate to “Indian Territory” in Eastern Oklahoma between 1826 and 1830 (prior to later federal government-forced removals via the Trail of Tears starting in 1831). Second eldest daughter Kate would remain behind after marrying a full-blooded Creek named William Cousins (1800–1876), the grandson of George Cousins (Chief of the Eufauli Tribe of Creek Indians), in August 1825 in Cusseta, Georgia. The young couple remained with Billy's extended tribal kinsmen in Clayton (Barbour County), Alabama until September 1842, when they began traveling by wagon train with three other Creek families bound for Oklahoma. A broken wagon wheel unexpectedly delayed their travels near Laurel Hill, Florid

Kate and Billy found their new Northwestern Florida Panhandle surroundings akin to their native homelands and decided to stay--ultimately settling in modern-day Mossy Head in

Walton County, Florida Walton County is located on the Emerald Coast in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida, with its southern border on the Gulf of Mexico. As of the 2020 census, the population was 75,305. Its county seat is DeFuniak Springs. The co ...

, as a pre-statehood Florida pioneer family. As for the rest of the McIntosh Family, once settled in Oklahoma, Chilly and his younger half-brother Daniel McIntosh would both serve as officers with the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War – with Chilly rising to the rank of Colonel.W. Winston Skinner, "McIntosh descendant pens story about chief's son Chilly"
''Times-Herald,'' 6 April 2009, accessed 16 November 2014

Career

Chief McIntosh as a leader adopted certain elements of European-American culture. He was interested in introducing American education among the Creeks, adopted the use of chattel slavery on his plantations, and played a role in centralizing the Creek National Council over the years. As a successful merchant and gentleman farmer, he owned more than one hundred black slaves and two plantations where he grew cotton and raised livestock. He also operated two ferries, an inn, and a tavern. He used his influence to improve a Creek trail connecting the Upper and Lower Towns, that ran from

Talladega, Alabama Talladega (, also ) is the county seat of Talladega County, Alabama, United States. It was incorporated in 1835. At the 2020 census, the population was 15,861. Talladega is approximately east of one of the state’s biggest cities, Birmingham. ...

, to the

Chattahoochee River The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida - Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chatta ...

. He owned two plantations, ''Lockchau Talofau'' ("Acorn Bluff") in present-day Carroll County, and Indian Springs, in present-day Butts County "William McIntosh"
''New Georgia Encyclopedia'', accessed 21 November 2014 His plantation of Acorn Bluff was at the eastern terminus of the McIntosh Road, where the chief developed a ferry operation across the

. Acorn Creek, a tributary of the Chattahoochee located adjacent to the McIntosh estate, is named after the plantation. He owned numerous black slaves to cultivate cotton as a commodity crop on his plantations. He also built a resort hotel at Indian Springs, hoping to attract more travelers along the improved road. Parts of this route are still referred to as the

McIntosh Road McIntosh Road is a historic Native Americans in the United States, Native American route in the northern part of the U.S. states of Alabama and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It was named for the prominent Creek Indians, Creek Indian chief Willi ...

, or the McIntosh Trail. It passes through several northern counties in Alabama and Georgia. The Creek Nation struggled with internal tensions after the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

and during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

, as debates surfaced over the increasing adoption of European-American culture. The Lower Towns, which comprised the majority of the population, were adopting some elements of European-American culture and lived more closely in relation to white settlers on the Georgia frontier. Many educated their children in English. Some prominent Creeks sent their sons to eastern universities for their education, and some adopted Christianity; as well as forms of European dress and houses, hence they qualified as one of the "civilized tribes". They expanded their farms, and many of the Creek elite became planters, purchasing enslaved African-Americans to work on

plantations A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

in a manner similar to their European-American neighbors.

Role in Creek War

Internal Creek tensions resulted in the

Creek War The Creek War (1813–1814), also known as the Red Stick War and the Creek Civil War, was a regional war between opposing Indigenous American Creek factions, European empires and the United States, taking place largely in modern-day Alabama ...

(1813–1814), when tensions between the Lower Creeks and the traditional Red Sticks of the Upper Towns erupted into open conflict. McIntosh and other Lower Creeks allied with United States forces against the Red Sticks after 1813, during the

. The Red Sticks were allied with the British, as both wanted to limit American expansion in the Southeast. McIntosh fought in support of General

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

and state militias in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, marking the defeat in 1814 of the Red Sticks and the end of the Creek War. McIntosh was appointed a brigadier general of the

United States Volunteers United States Volunteers also known as U.S. Volunteers, U.S. Volunteer Army, or other variations of these, were military volunteers called upon during wartime to assist the United States Army but who were separate from both the Regular Army and the ...

by then-Major General Jackson and enjoyed the full emoluments, such as pay and allowances for subsistence, forage and servants, as officers of the same flag officer rank in the United States Army. The Creeks were forced to cede lands to the United States in the early 1800s. Maps mark the strips that were ceded over the years. McIntosh played a role in negotiations and cessions of 1805, 1814 (21 million acres after the Creek War), 1818 and 1821. For his role in completing the cession in 1821, American agents awarded McIntosh 1,000 acres of land at Indian Springs and 640 acres on the

Ocmulgee River The Ocmulgee River () is a western tributary of the Altamaha River, approximately 255 mi (410 km) long, in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the westernmost major tributary of the Altamaha. After the wars, European-American settlers were increasingly migrating to the interior of the Southeast from the coastal areas and encroached on the territories of the Creek and other Southeastern tribes. Cultivation of short-staple cotton, which did well in these areas, was made profitable by

Eli Whitney Eli Whitney Jr. (December 8, 1765January 8, 1825) was an American inventor, widely known for inventing the cotton gin, one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution that shaped the economy of the Antebellum South. Although Whitney hi ...

's invention of the

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); a ...

in the 1790s, which mechanized processing of the cotton. Lands were developed in the piedmont areas for large cotton plantations, stimulating a demand for African-American slaves that resulted in the forcible migration of more than one million slaves to the Deep South in the domestic trade.

First Seminole War

Remnants of Creek as well as other American Indian tribes plus

fugitive slaves In the United States, fugitive slaves or runaway slaves were terms used in the 18th and 19th century to describe people who fled slavery. The term also refers to the federal Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. Such people are also called free ...

had migrated to

Spanish Florida Spanish Florida ( es, La Florida) was the first major European land claim and attempted settlement in North America during the European Age of Discovery. ''La Florida'' formed part of the Captaincy General of Cuba, the Viceroyalty of New Spain, ...

during the late 18th century, when they formed a new tribe, known as the

Seminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, an ...

. Enslaved African-Americans from Georgia also escaped and took refuge in Spanish Florida, where the

Spanish Crown , coatofarms = File:Coat_of_Arms_of_Spanish_Monarch.svg , coatofarms_article = Coat of arms of the King of Spain , image = Felipe_VI_in_2020_(cropped).jpg , incumbent = Felipe VI , incumbentsince = 19 Ju ...

offered them freedom and land in exchange for

converting Converting companies are companies that specialize in modifying or combining raw materials such as polyesters, adhesives, silicone, adhesive tapes, foams, plastics, felts, rubbers, liners and metals, as well as other materials, to create new produ ...

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. After the War of 1812, the British withdrew and turned over the fort that later became known as The Negro Fort on the lower

Apalachicola River The Apalachicola River is a river, approximately 160 mi (180 km) long in the state of Florida. The river's large watershed, known as the ACF River Basin, drains an area of approximately into the Gulf of Mexico. The distance to its fa ...

to newly freed African-Americans in the area. It was occupied by about 300 African-American men, women, and children, 20 renegade

Choctaw The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...

, and a few Seminole warriors, led by an African-American former Colonial Marine named Garçon. Among the African-Americans were members of the disbanded British

Corps of Colonial Marines The Corps of Colonial Marines were two different British Marine units raised from former black slaves for service in the Americas, at the behest of Alexander Cochrane. The units were created at two separate periods: 1808-1810 during the Napol ...

. Georgia slaveholders and the U.S. Army called it the "

Negro Fort Negro Fort (African Fort) was a short-lived fortification built by the British in 1814, during the War of 1812, in a remote part of what was at the time Spanish Florida. It was intended to support a never-realized British attack on the U.S. via i ...

," and worried that the autonomy of the blacks would encourage their own slaves to escape or rebel. McIntosh fought with the United States in the

First Seminole War The Seminole Wars (also known as the Florida Wars) were three related military conflicts in Florida between the United States and the Seminole, citizens of a Native American nation which formed in the region during the early 1700s. Hostilities ...

and helped capture the fort. When the Americans shot a heated cannonball into the fort, it struck the magazine and set off a huge explosion. Most of the people within the fort died immediately.

Formation of a centralized Creek government

Chief McIntosh was actively involved in collaborating with chiefs from the Upper and Lower Towns (then primarily located in Alabama and Georgia, respectively) through the Creek National Council in developing a centralized government that borrowed from Anglo-American traditions. They formulated laws in the Code of 1818, which protected communal tribal property and established a police force known as the Law Defenders. In an effort to protect their remaining lands, the National Council, including McIntosh, had passed legislation in 1824 making it a capital crime to alienate communal land.John Bartlett Meserve,
The MacIntoshes" [sic]
''Chronicles of Oklahoma'' 10 (1932): 310-25, accessed 4 October 2011

Annuities and African importation case of 1820

Like other prominent chiefs, McIntosh worked closely with

, the U.S. Indian Supervisor in the Southeast for two decades until 1816. Hawkins was instrumental in gaining Creek cessions of land through that period, but he also supported McIntosh's efforts to bring European-American education to the territory by welcoming missionaries who set up schools. After President

James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe was ...

came to office, in November 1817 his administration appointed

David Brydie Mitchell David Brydie Mitchell (October 22, 1766 – April 22, 1837) was an American politician in Georgia who was elected in 1809 as governor of the state, serving two terms. He was elected again in 1815 for one term. Mitchell moved to Georgia at ...

as the U.S. Indian Agent to the Creek Nation. Mitchell had formerly been the governor of Georgia (1809–1813) (1815–1817), as well as holding other posts in the state.Royce Gordon Shingleton, "David Brydie Mitchell and the African Importation Case of 1820,"
''Journal of Negro History'' 58 (3) (July 1973): 327-340, accessed 14 February 2012 After the Creek War, the people suffered from the disruption. The U.S. provided food and supplies as part of the annuities for the land cessions, especially the 21 million acres the Creeks were forced to cede following the war. Mitchell and McIntosh were suspected of controlling some of the distribution of food and annuities for their own benefit in this period, increasing McIntosh's power among the Creeks. In addition, Mitchell was implicated in the African importation case, in which illegal African slaves were held at the Creek Agency on their sovereign land, for sale in the Mississippi Territory. This was tried in Admiralty Court as ''Miguel de Castro v. Ninety-five African Negros'' (1819–1820) because it was in violation of the U.S. law, effective 1808, to end the international African slave trade. The privateer "Commodore" Aury had taken the Africans as a prize from a Spanish ship bound for

Havana, Cuba Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, where Spain continued slavery. He transported them to

Amelia Island Amelia Island is a part of the Sea Islands chain that stretches along the East Coast of the United States from South Carolina to Florida; it is the southernmost of the Sea Islands, and the northernmost of the barrier islands on Florida's Atlantic ...

off Florida. William Bowen bought 110 slaves for $25,000 and had them taken to the Indian agency in the Creek Nation in two batches: in December 1817 and January 1818. Mitchell appeared to be primarily responsible for keeping the Africans at the Creek agency, which was considered outside U.S. territory as it was within the Creek Nation. This was prior to the expected sale of the slaves in the Mississippi Territory, then including Alabama. Too many people learned about the presence of the Africans, and Mitchell was prosecuted over the issue. President Monroe replaced Mitchell in 1821 with John Crowell, who had previously served as an Alabama Congressman. That year, the Creeks agreed to another land cession in order to raise money for needed food and supplies, as conditions were still difficult for them.

Treaty of Indian Springs (February 1825)

Under pressure from the United States and the state of Georgia, Chief McIntosh and some Creek chiefs had ceded land in 1821. The National Creek Council at that time considered execution of McIntosh for this breach of law but did not proceed. The United States' growing European population, particularly in the

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

, put pressure on the federal government to take more Indian land. The federal government continued to try to persuade or force the Creeks and other

Southeastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

tribes to cede the remainder of their lands in exchange for payments and land west of the Mississippi River in what was called

(present-day Oklahoma and Arkansas.) On February 12, 1825, McIntosh and eight other chiefs signed the Treaty of Indian Springs. These chiefs included Samuel and Benjamin Hawkins, mixed-race Creek sons of Stephen Hawkins, who was also of mixed race, however McIntosh was the only chief who was a member of the Creek National Council. The brothers had both been educated at Princeton. Samuel had married McIntosh's daughter Jane, and Benjamin would later marry his daughter Rebecca. The treaty ceded all the remaining Creek land in Georgia (the Upper and Lower Towns) plus 3,000,000 acres in Alabama to the United States in exchange for $200,000 and annuities to be paid to the Creek nation. Another $200,000 was paid directly to McIntosh. The fifth article of the treaty stipulated that McIntosh receive payment for lands he was previously granted in 1821. Historians continue to argue over whether McIntosh ceded the land for personal gain, or because he believed removal was inevitable, and he was trying to achieve some security for the Creek Nation. Historians like Michael Green believe that McIntosh sold away the tribe's birthright and future, describing the treaty as

Fraudulent by the standards of any society, concluded in violation of the expressed orders of both interested governments, riddled with bribery, chicanery and deceit, the treaty illegally acquired for Georgia and Alabama, through the offices of the United States, an enormous amount of land.

As soon as the Creek National Council learned of this, they protested to Washington, but the U.S. Senate had already ratified the treaty. Initially Washington officials tried to carry it out. Governor

of Georgia, a cousin of McIntosh, had promised him protection, but put pressure on him to survey lands ahead of time, as Georgia wanted to prepare for a land lottery. Under the treaty the Creeks had until late 1826 to leave the ceded territory.

Death

Under its Code of 1818, the National Council had established a police force, known as Law Menders. The Council ruled that the signatories of the February 1825 treaty had to be executed for ceding the communal Creek lands, which was defined as a capital crime. This was the first known occasion when the Council ordered execution of men for a crime against the centralized Nation. The Council assigned chief Menawa, of a ceded township in the Upper Towns, to carry out the sentence. On April 30, 1825, the

Red Stick Red Sticks (also Redsticks, Batons Rouges, or Red Clubs), the name deriving from the red-painted war clubs of some Native American Creeks—refers to an early 19th-century traditionalist faction of these people in the American Southeast. Made ...

leader and long-time McIntosh political nemesis ''Menawa,'' with a large force of 120-150 Law Menders (the recently organized Creek police force) from towns in the ceded territory, attacked the McIntosh plantation, lighting bonfires around the buildings.Frank, A. K
William McIntosh
''Encyclopedia of Alabama''. 2013. Then they set McIntosh's house on fire. McIntosh, wounded by gunfire, was pulled from the burning house by several attackers, then one of the men stabbed him in the heart. Other Creeks shot him more than fifty times. Chilly McIntosh, the chief's oldest son, had also been sentenced to die, but he escaped by diving through a window. ''Etommee Tustunnuggee,'' another Creek chief who signed the 1825 treaty, was killed during the raid. Later that day, the Law Menders found the Hawkins brothers, who were also signatories. They hanged Samuel and shot Benjamin, but he escaped.Michael D. Green, ''The Politics of Indian Removal: Creek Government and Society in Crisis''
University of Nebraska Press, 1985, pp. 96-97, accessed 14 September 2011 The Creek had "adopted certain Anglo-American legal concepts, ... welded them to their own concepts of political independence and used them to serve decidedly Creek purposes." William McIntosh's wives asked for a suit of clothes for his burial, but the killers insisted on throwing the naked corpse into an unmarked grave. His burial site and part of his plantation have been preserved as the

McIntosh Reserve McIntosh Reserve is an outdoor recreation area along the Chattahoochee River located in Carroll County, Georgia, Carroll County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The park is operated by the Carroll County Recreation Department and supports outdoor ...

Carroll County, Georgia Carroll County is a county located in the northwestern part of the State of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, its population was 119,148. Its county seat is the city of Carrollton. Carroll County is included in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell ...

. The grave is located near a replica of McIntosh's home in McIntosh Reserve Park near Whitesburg. Members of the National Council, including Menawa, went to Washington to protest the 1825 treaty. The U.S. government rejected the 1825 treaty as fraudulent, and negotiated the 1826 Treaty of Washington, which allowed the Creeks to keep about in Alabama. In this new treaty, the Creek received an immediate payment of $217,660 and a perpetual annuity of $20,000. The state of Georgia ignored the new treaty and worked to evict the Creeks from their lands before official removal started in the 1830s.

Legacy

After William's death, his younger half-brother Roley McIntosh advanced to serve as chief of the Lower Creeks until 1859, moving with them to Indian Territory in the 1830s. His first wife had died and the widower married Susannah, the widow McIntosh. Led by his son Chilly, McIntosh's family and other Creeks voluntarily moved to Indian Territory from 1826 to 1830, where they settled at the forks of the Arkansas,

Verdigris Verdigris is the common name for blue-green, copper-based pigments that form a patina on copper, bronze, and brass. The technical literature is ambiguous as to its chemical composition. Some sources refer to "neutral verdigris" as copper(II) ac ...

and Grand (Neosho) rivers, setting up the Western Creek Nation. His two sons Chillicothe and Daniel McIntosh both served as Confederate officers in the Civil War. Chilly founded the 1st Creek Mounted Volunteers (later known as the First Creek Cavalry Regiment, C.S.A.); Chilly founded the 2nd Creek Mounted Volunteers (later known as the Second Creek Cavalry Regiment, CSA). Both brothers later became Baptist ministers in the Indian Territory. Eight McIntosh men served with the

Confederate Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

during the war. Daughter Catherine "Kate" McIntosh and her husband Eufauli Creek Billy Cousins became a pre-statehood Florida pioneer family after settling in the sparsely-populated Northwestern Florida Panhandle in September 1842. Daughter Rebecca McIntosh married Benjamin Hawkins in the Western Creek Nation in 1831. Benjamin knew

Sam Houston Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played an important role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two i ...

, and in 1833 he and Rebecca moved to

Marion County, Texas Marion County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 9,725. Its county seat is Jefferson. Marion County is in East Texas and is named for Francis Marion, the Revolutionary War general from ...

, on the territory's eastern border, where they developed the Refuge plantation. Their son William died young, and they had two daughters, Louisa and Anna. Benjamin Hawkins died in 1836 in Texas, killed near Nagodoches. By the 1840s, Rebecca's sisters Delilah McIntosh, who married William Drew, and Catherine Hettie McIntosh, who married James D. Willison, were settled in Texas with their husbands and families on part of the Hawkins property. Delilah and William Drew's 2400-acre plantation, called Falonah, was near the Refuge. The widow Rebecca McIntosh Hawkins married Spire M. Hagerty, who held land and slaves on his Phoenix plantation in

Harrison County, Texas Harrison County is a county on the eastern border of the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 68,839. The county seat is Marshall. The county was created in 1839 and organized in 1842. It is named for Jon ...

. He died in December 1849 in Montgomery County, Alabama. By 1860, Rebecca Hagerty was the richest woman in Texas at the age of 45. She was the only woman who in 1860 owned more than 100 slaves, and likely the only Native American in Texas to do so. She owned three plantations: the third was in Cass County, and the total properties amounted to 12,800 acres.Charles A. Steger, "Rebecca McIntosh Hawkins Hagerty: The Richest Woman in Texas"
''Texas State Genealogical Society Quarterly, Stirpes'', September 2007, accessed 17 November 2014 In 1860, her "personal wealth was reported to have been $85,000, and her real estate valued at $35,000. She was the wealthiest person in Marion County, where her plantation Refuge was located. Most of her personal wealth was attributed to the value of the one 102 people she held in bondage." *The

Park was established in

Whitesburg, Georgia Whitesburg is a town in Carroll County, Georgia, United States. The population was 588 at the 2010 census. The McIntosh Reserve here is the former plantation of Chief William McIntosh, a prominent leader of the Lower Towns of the Creek Confeder ...

. *

Chief McIntosh Lake Chief McIntosh Lake is a reservoir in the U.S. state of Georgia. Chief McIntosh Lake was named after William McIntosh William McIntosh (1775 – April 30, 1825),Hoxie, Frederick (1996)pp. 367-369/ref> was also commonly known as ''Tustunnugge ...

in Georgia is named after him. *

McIntosh High School McIntosh High School is a comprehensive four-year public secondary school located in Peachtree City, Georgia, United States, in Metro Atlanta. As of 2016, it has an enrollment of 1,684 students in grades nine through twelve. The school, governed by ...

Peachtree City, Georgia Peachtree City is the largest city in Fayette County, Georgia, Fayette County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, it had a population of 34,364. Peachtree City is located in South Metro Atlanta. P ...

is named after him. *In 1921, McIntosh's grave was marked by a boulder with a bronze tablet placed by the William McIntosh Chapter, DAR in October 1921. The inscription states: *In the early 21st century, the McIntosh Trail was being proposed as a state scenic byway in several counties of northern Georgia in a project by the McIntosh Trail Historic Preservation Society. The chief had improved this trail to connect the Upper and Lower Towns, and bring commerce to the area, including to his hotel at Indian Springs and the ferry at the terminus. By 2011 the Trail had received preliminary approval for its alignment, with the Three Rivers Commission due to review its corridor plan.

References in other media

Lydia Sigourney Lydia Huntley Sigourney (September 1, 1791 – June 10, 1865), ''née'' Lydia Howard Huntley, was an American poet, author, and publisher during the early and mid 19th century. She was commonly known as the "Sweet Singer of Hartford." She had a ...

's poem was published in her 1827 collection of poetry. * William Gilmore Simms, wrote a poem about William McIntosh, "The Broken Arrow," published in
The Book of My Lady: A Melange. By a Bachelor Knight
' (Philadelphia, 1833). * Betty Collins Jones, ''Clouds across the Moon'' (1991), romance novel. * Billie Jane McIntosh, a 3x great-granddaughter of McIntosh, wrote ''Ah-ko-kee, American Sovereign'' (2002), a novel featuring McIntosh's daughter Jane McIntosh Hawkins; this is not a history. *Billie Jane McIntosh also wrote a

biographical novel The biographical novel is a genre of novel which provides a fictional account of a contemporary or historical person's life. Like other forms of biographical fiction, details are often trimmed or reimagined to meet the artistic needs of the fiction ...

about Jane's brother in ''From Georgia Tragedy To Oklahoma Frontier: A Biography of Scots Creek Indian Chief Chilly McIntosh'' (2008) * B.J. McIntosh wrote a screenplay about William McIntosh in 2014. Matt Collins is marketing the work through his company, Brit Nicholas Entertainment.W. Winston Skinner, "Descendent writes screenplay about Chief William McIntosh"
''Times-Herald'', 16 August 2014, accessed 16 November 2014

Notes

References

Green, Michael D. ''The Politics of Indian Removal: Creek Government and Society in Crisis''
Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1982
Griffith, Jr., Benjamin W. ''McIntosh and Weatherford, Creek Indian Leaders''
, Birmingham: University of Alabama Press, 1998, text online * "McIntosh, William, Jr." in Hoxie, Frederick E
''Encyclopedia of North American Indians''
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996.
Theda Perdue, ''Mixed Blood Indians: Racial Construction in the Early South'' (Google eBook)
University of Georgia Press, 2003

Rootsweb ©, adapted with permission of the author.

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